Kathmandu , Nepal -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A ferocious leopard may have killed 15 people in Nepal in a 15-month span , its latest victim a 4-year-old boy that the creature dragged away into the jungle to eat .

The head of boy was found in the forest a kilometer from his home Saturday morning , said Kamal Prasad Kharel , the police chief of the Baitadi district , an area about 600 kilometers -LRB- 373 miles -RRB- west of Kathmandu .

The grisly discovery , which came after teams of people searched for the child , marks the 15th victim in the past 15 months in that remote district in western Nepal .

The police chief suspects that a single man-eating leopard is responsible for the deaths . If not , there are at most two of the man-eating creatures around , he believes .

Maheshwor Dhakal , an ecologist at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation in Kathmandu , agreed that it is unusual to find more than one or two man-eating animals in one area . Most leopards live on wild prey .

More human victims could also be expected if there were more than one or two man-eaters around , he said .

`` Since human blood has more salt than animal blood , once wild animals get the taste of salty blood they do not like other animals like deer , '' Dhakal said .

Kharel said he feared the actual number of people killed by the leopard could be higher than 15 , because others have lost their life to leopard attacks in Uttarkhand state in northern India , which borders Baitadi district .

`` It could be the same leopard , '' he said .

Of the 15 victims in Nepal so far , two-thirds are children below the age of 10 . The others are older children and a 29-year-old woman who had gone to collect fodder for domestic animals in the nearby forest , a common practice in Nepal .

`` No adult male has been killed , '' Kharel said .

All the victims are from villages bordering the dense forests in the district , he said .

After killing its victim , the leopard takes the body away into the forest to eat .

`` In the case of the children it just leaves behind the head , eating everything , but some parts of the adult body are left behind because it can not finish it , '' Kharel added .

The district administration has announced a Rs . 25,000 -LRB- about $ 300 -RRB- reward to anyone who captures or kills the leopard .

The local administration has sought to raise public awareness of the dangers of going alone into nearby forests and has mobilized the police , armed police force and local people who have licensed guns to hunt for the animal .

Controlling this particular leopard has been a challenge for the wildlife officials in Kathmandu .

`` We are sending a veterinary doctor to the district to understand the situation , '' Dhakal , the ecologist , said . `` There is no alternative but to kill the leopard . ''

The chief district administrator has granted permission for this particular leopard to be killed . Normally , it is illegal to kill wild animals .

Leopards are common in the low mountain areas , as compared to the high Himalayas , across the country .

While cases of leopards killing domestic animals are common , and there are sometimes instances of leopards killing people in Nepal , this case is `` extreme , '' Dhakal said .

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A 4-year-old boy is the latest victim of a man-eating leopard , a local police chief says

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He suspects one leopard is behind the deaths of 15 people in the past 15 months

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A reward has been offered to anyone who captures or kills the man-eating creature

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Leopards are common in low mountain areas of Nepal but usually eat wild prey like deer